


Meet and Greet

by awgaskarth0805



Category: All Time Low (Band)
Genre: Sickfic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-12-16
Updated: 2019-12-16
Packaged: 2021-02-25 23:49:30
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,941
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21823945
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/awgaskarth0805/pseuds/awgaskarth0805
Summary: Alex is sick when the band has a meet and greet.
Kudos: 3





	Meet and Greet

**Author's Note:**

> This is a request!

“How’re you feeling, Alex?” Rian asked as they walked to the stage entrance, making sure that their instruments were performance ready.  
“Not too great, but I’ve played feeling worse than thins. Besides, it’s a shorter set,” Alex replied. All Time Low weren’t on an official tour, but they were playing some festivals in the Midwest.   
Today, they were at Lollapalooza in Chicago, and they were about to play a forty-minute set. After, they were scheduled to have a short meet and greet with the people who bought premium passes to the festival.   
The day before all of this, Alex had felt a bit off, and by the end of the day, discovered that he had the stomach flu. He spent quite a bit of the night before getting sick, which meant that he was really tired on top of feeling sick to his stomach.  
“Well, if you start to feel really bad, let one of us know,” Jack requested. Before anyone could say anything more, they were told that it was time for them to take the stage. They walked on to a cheering crowd, and immediately started into their first song.   
Overall, the show mostly went well. There were a few moments where Alex thought he’d have to run offstage to get sick, but he somehow managed to keep himself together, and make it through the thirteen songs they played, and the minimal banter that he shared with Jack.  
“Thank you guys so much for watching out set. For those of you who bought premium passes in, we’re hosting a thirty-minute meet and greet behind where this stage is set up, and we’d love to see you there! Thank you all again, we love you!” Alex exclaimed as the band did one last jam at the end of Dear Maria.   
Once they were off stage, they passed their instruments off to their crew, and Alex sat down on a bench right off of the stage and held his stomach. His bandmates all exchanged looks of concern before walking over to him. Jack sat next to him and put a hand on his back.  
“How’re you doing, man?” Jack asked sympathetically.  
“I’ve been better,” Alex admitted, shutting his eyes.  
“Do you want to skip the meet and greet? The three of us can do it,” Zack offered.  
“No, I still want to do it. I hate missing these things; the kids get so excited about them. Besides, it’s only half an hour, I’ll be fine,” Alex said, taking a deep breath before standing up.  
“Will you at least take some anti-nausea medicine to help your stomach some?” Rian suggested.  
“Yeah, that’s not a bad idea. I brought some with me, so I’ll take one,” Alex replied, pulling the medicine out of his pocket. Once he took one, he followed his band to the area where the meet and greet was being held.   
Since it was such a small amount of people attending, they decided to make it the old free for all style, so they could have longer conversations with the fans. They went back to a small open area and sat down in some chairs that had been set up for them while they waited for the fans to arrive.  
“Did the medicine help at all?” Jack asked his friend.  
“I’m not sure yet. Honestly, I still feel really bad,” Alex replied.  
“Well, if you feel too sick to get through this whole thing, you can always go back to the bus,” Jack replied.  
“I know, but I can do this. I’ll be just fine,” Alex said, not sure if he was trying to convince himself or Jack of this at this point. He took a deep breath as the crew members led a group of about thirty kids to where they were. The looks of pure excitement on their faces made Alex temporarily forget about how bad he was feeling.   
He loved seeing their fans happy and smiling, and he told himself that he would make this next half hour work, solely for this purpose. The four of them stood back up and went in different directions to interact with the fans.   
A girl walked over to Alex, she had a big grin on her face and was holding a Nothing Personal CD.  
“Hey, how’re you doing?” Alex asked, mirroring her smile.  
“I’m fantastic, it’s so great to meet you!” she exclaimed. She leaned forward to hug Alex, but she hugged him a bit tighter than what his stomach could handle. As they pulled away from one another, Alex winced some, which the girl was quick to pick up on.  
“Are you alright?” she asked, sounding genuinely concerned.  
“Well, not really. I’m a bit sick right now, so that made my stomach hurt a bit,” Alex admitted.  
“Oh gosh, I’m so sorry,” she replied, wide eyes and an anxious expression on her face.  
“No, it’s not your fault, don’t worry about it. Do you want a picture or for me to sign something?” Alex asked, desperately wanting to change the subject.  
“I’d love both, if you wouldn’t mind!” she replied.  
“You’ve got it!” Alex replied. He quickly signed her CD, then took a selfie with her.  
“Thank you so much, Alex. I love your guys’ music, it’s helped me through a lot,” she stated.  
“I’m glad that it has. Hey, you never told me your name,” Alex replied.  
“My name is Mary,” she replied with a smile.  
“Well, it was great to meet you, Mary,” Alex said with a smile.  
“The same goes to you. Thank you for everything,” Mary said, walking over to where Jack was. Their brief interaction left Alex with a smile on his face. He always thought that the most rewarding part of their job was getting to hear about the connections their music made with the fans, and how it really helped them in their lives.   
These happy thoughts were interrupted by a painful jerk in Alex’s stomach that made him shut his eyes and wrap nan arm around his stomach. It continued to churn, and Alex did his best to take deep breaths to rid himself of the discomfort. He knew that he was more than likely going to get sick in the near future, but he hoped that it could wait for the last twenty-six minutes of the meet and greet to pass first.   
Alex talked to a couple more fans, and the pain in his stomach intensified as time went on. He really wanted to either be on the bus, sitting with Jack in the back lounge or laying in his bunk, or waiting for this stomach flu to run its course so he could enjoy the exciting things that they had coming up as a band. Two girls waked over to him, not noticing how pale he was now.  
“Hi Alex!” one of the girls exclaimed with a huge grin.  
“Hey guys, how’re you?” Alex asked with a fake smile.  
“We’re great! You guys played an awesome set earlier!” the second girl replied.  
“I’m glad you liked it. What song was your favorite?” he asked. As much as he wanted to know the answer, the pain in his stomach started to increase, capturing his attention.   
He discreetly put a hand to his stomach, hoping that it would help him feel better in some way. Unfortunately, his plan didn’t work, and he continued to feel more and more sick.  
“Do you think we could get a picture?” the first girl asked, pulling Alex out of his thoughts.   
“Absolutely,” Alex replied, swallowing hard. The first girl pulled out her phone, and Alex stood in the middle of them for the picture.  
“This is great. Thank you so much!” the second girl said as she looked at the photo on her friend’s phone.  
“I’m glad you-“ Alex cut himself off with a gag.  
“Woah, are you alright?” the first girl asked.  
“Yeah, I’m-“ Alex tried, gagging even more. He tried to swallow again, but it didn’t work like he wanted it to. He felt his stomach churn and knew that it would be a matter of minutes until he got sick.   
Jack looked around the room, trying to find a fan to talk to when he saw Alex gagging. He was quite a bit paler than he was at the start of the meet and greet, and Jack knew what all of this meant.   
“Are you about to throw up?” the second girl asked, sounding a bit disgusted. Alex saw a porta-potty not too far from where they were, so instead of answering the fan, he put a hand to his mouth and made his way over to it.   
He quickly locked himself in before kneeling to the floor and starting to get sick. After a few minutes, he finally stopped, and leaned up against the wall as he shut his eyes and hugged himself. A couple minutes later, there was a knock on the door.   
Alex opened it up to see a crew member, who told him that he was going to take him back to the bus. Not even trying to argue, Alex followed the crew member back to the bus and thanked him before getting on.   
After quickly changing into something more comfortable, Alex went to the back lounge, where his pillow and blanket were from that morning. He pulled his blanket close to him, hoping to combat the chills that he could slowly feel returning. He left an arm around his stomach since it was still hurting quite a bit. He didn’t feel like he would be sick immediately again, but it still had an ache in it.   
He scrolled through his Twitter feed, wanting to see if any fans had tweeted about what happened at the meet and greet. To his surprise, no one had sent him any negative tweets about it, a bunch of people had tweeted him their well wishes.   
After twenty minutes of this, Alex heard the bus door open, and footsteps to the back lounge. Jack walked in, holding a piece of paper.  
“How’re you holding up?” Jack asked, taking a seat next to his friend.  
“Not too good, if I’m being totally honest. Were the fans upset about what happened? Also, where are Rian and Zack?” Alex asked.  
“Rian and Zack are helping the crew with the equipment, and the fans weren’t mad or anything. They asked what was going on, and we told them you’ve been a bit sick. Someone suggested making you a big get-well card, so here it is,” Jack explained, handing Alex the piece of paper.   
It was a piece of computer paper that read ‘Get Well Soon Alex’ in Jack’s handwriting at the top. Below that, there were signatures of all thirty people that had come to the meet and greet, along with those of his bandmates.  
“This is awesome, thanks, man,” Alex said as a big smile appeared on his face.  
“Don’t thank me, dude, thank the fans. This was their idea,” Jack replied.  
“Good idea!” Alex exclaimed. He grabbed his phone and opened up Twitter again and went to make a new tweet.  
‘@AlexGaskarth: Thank you guys so much for being so understanding at the meet and greet, and for the rad card. You guys are the best!’  
Jack turned on the TV, looking for a movie for the two of them to watch. Alex ended up not paying too much attention to the movie, he was too busy liking and replying to the fans on Twitter who were telling him to feel better, and he felt lucky to have the best fans in the business.

**Author's Note:**

> Hey guys, this is a request from my Tumblr! I've written up a bunch of requests that I've gotten and pre-typed them, so I can post a story a day until Friday! Even though I'm still working on getting some requests written and posted, please continue to send them in, I'd love to write them on the car trip to Chicago on Friday!! I hope you all liked this story, and thanks for reading it! Lots of love, Liv.


End file.
